Typical brake life on 2500HD

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

David Modine - 10 Nov 2004 09:57 GMT

I had to get front brakes, including rotors, replaced on a 2001 Chevy 2500hd
CC 6.0 yesterday. The truck has somehere around 37k miles of light duty
usage. Pads were not yet worn out, but rotors had builtup areas of rust
causing uneven pad wear. The mechanic says this is a common problem with
these trucks.
Comments welcomed.
David

Reply to this Message

Randd01 - 10 Nov 2004 23:55 GMT

Your right on target . Had mine done at 35,000. Suks donut!

Reply to this Message

shiden_kai - 11 Nov 2004 03:31 GMT

> I had to get front brakes, including rotors, replaced on a 2001 Chevy
> 2500hd CC 6.0 yesterday. The truck has somehere around 37k miles of
> light duty usage. Pads were not yet worn out, but rotors had builtup
> areas of rust causing uneven pad wear. The mechanic says this is a
> common problem with these trucks.

This is typical with the newer trucks. The pads would literally last
forever,
but the rotors rust out on the inside surfaces. I'm not sure that pads that
last forever is a great thing. Eventually, brake pads, calipers,
slides...etc
need to be maintained....but it isn't happening with the new style trucks.
Lack of lubrication eventually causes the pads to stick/stop moving and
you get the rotors rusting from poor/little pad contact with the rotor.
This is strictly my opinion.

Ian

Reply to this Message

dperez@juno_nospam.com - 12 Nov 2004 06:13 GMT

OK, I'm confused........ Explain the rusting out from the inside?

When I think about how a disk brake works I'm having a hard time with the idea
that the PADS are still good, and the rotors are "rusted out"? The hydraulic
pressure that presses the pads against the rotors is massive. I can see the
pads, slides, calipers, etc, having a problem and not RELEASING the pads from
the rotors. Which would cause the rotors and pads to wear unevenly and the
truck to pull and a lot of other undesirable things to happen...
But HOW do you get a vehicle that isn't pushing the pads AGAINST the rotors?
And if it isn't making contact between the pads and rotors isn't it immediately
apparent 'cause the truck doesn't stop? Or pulls wildly?

What am I missing here?

>I had to get front brakes, including rotors, replaced on a 2001 Chevy 2500hd
>CC 6.0 yesterday. The truck has somehere around 37k miles of light duty
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>Comments welcomed.
>David

Reply to this Message

David Modine - 12 Nov 2004 09:23 GMT

I didn't see the rotors myself. This truck was my personal company truck,
handed down to an employee in January. As I interpret the situation, rust
was building up around the outer perimeter, where I *think* there are some
slots or recesses machined into the rotor, perhaps to assist in cooling the
rotors. The brakes were indeed still working well, but making noise. IIRC,
the pads don't make contact all the way out at the edge of the rotors,
though I would have to look to confirm this.

> OK, I'm confused........ Explain the rusting out from the inside?
>
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> >Comments welcomed.
> >David

Reply to this Message

dperez@juno_nospam.com - 15 Nov 2004 01:27 GMT

>I didn't see the rotors myself. This truck was my personal company truck,
>handed down to an employee in January. As I interpret the situation, rust
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>the pads don't make contact all the way out at the edge of the rotors,
>though I would have to look to confirm this.

Hm... Interesting... Well, maybe I'll find out at 35K or so... but it sounds
a little odd that they'd be concerned about an area of the rotor where the pad
doesn't even touch.

Reply to this Message

shiden_kai - 15 Nov 2004 02:42 GMT

> Hm... Interesting... Well, maybe I'll find out at 35K or so... but
> it sounds a little odd that they'd be concerned about an area of the
> rotor where the pad doesn't even touch.

I doubt that they would be concerned about that. If so, then
they may just be scamming....looking for work. The fact is
that I've seen many higher mileage new style trucks that the inner brake
pads seem to get stuck on their slides and often the inner
rotor surface starts to get quite rusty. The pads certainly are
not worn, but they don't seem to be contacting the rotor
surface.

Another good reason to have some sort of brake "servicing"
done at a reasonable mileage, but this is extremely hard to
justify to a customer. It ends up being much more simple
to just machine the rotors, and install new pads.

Ian

Reply to this Message